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ICANN now create my own top level web domain…

ICANN announced on the 20th June 2011 that they have formally ratified the decision to open up the .com world to .anything, .everything and .everyone. Well anyone with $185,000 in their back pocket and a further $25,000 every year for renewal. However, the decision does raise some interesting questions.

Firstly, how easy will it be to have your own top level domain? The answer is - not particularly. You will have to have a legitimate claim to the domain, so for example, Tesco would not be able to buy .love and hold online dating websites to ransom. You will also have to have a significant level of IT protection - your average home PC with Norton Anti-virus software will obviously not be able to host a top level web domain. The other thing that has to be considered is intellectual property protection. As we mentioned previously, someone’s existing trade mark can be an obstacle and the big brands will presumably be making sure that no-one else is able to register and take advantage of their reputations.

Secondly, what sort of money spinner will this be? Will this just end up being another way for the big brands to extend their dominance, or will it be a business opportunity for all if you are lucky enough to acquire the most sought after top level domain? Cue ‘suffix wars’ as companies compete to buy the domain that relates to them, for example, News International (owners of the Times and the Sun) v Associated Newspapers (owners of the Daily Mail and the Metro) trying to buy .news. And spare a thought for the existing owners of top level domains such as the Island of Tuvalu. Its current GDP is massively supported by .tv but presumably that will be worth significantly less when someone buys .tele.

Finally, what will the impact of this decision actually be? Every business will continue to have a .com, and it is most likely that when you type in tesco.food, it will just redirect you to the tesco.com website or vice versa. So is there any point in paying the massive amount of money it will cost for a top level domain? If you ask Microsoft whether there was any point in buying the Microsoft.co.uk domain name, the response would be pretty obvious.

It won’t be long before children have to start learning an extra meaning of suffixes…